While an actual cure for cancer has yet to be found, significant progress has been made in developing methods and techniques for repressing the spread of cancer and, in some instances, actually arresting some forms of cancer. Particular progress has been made in the development of anticancer drugs and techniques of delivering these drugs. There has also been significant progress in the discovery and development of antitumor agents which have proven effective in treating and repressing a variety of tumors including malignant and other rapidly growing tumors.
One family of antitumor agents which has proven effective in the treatment of some types of cancerous tumors and therefore has potential for use in cancer chemotherapy are actinomycins. Actinomycin was the first crystalline antibiotic derived from streptomyces. As early as 1952 it was demonstrated that actinomycins, actinomycin C in this case, had a remarkable effect in repressing the growth of tumors such as Hodgkins's disease and lymphomas, both in animals and in man. Subsequent studies throughout the world have indicated that actinomycins are very effective in inhibiting the growth of a variety of tumors. However, various preparations of actinomycins, including actinomycin D, have shown excessive toxicity to the host, which toxicity has been a most serious factor, preventing general use of these antibiotics in cancer chemotherapy. Toxicity of other potential cancer-fighting drugs in addition to actinomycins is a very serious drawback, as these drugs do exhibit a significant inhibiting effect on a variety of tumors. Consequently, it would be desirable to find a means of introducing these drugs to the body in a form in which the toxicity of the drug to the host is reduced.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a chemotherapy method for various tumors.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a chemotherapy method for cancerous tumors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide means for introducing antitumor drugs in chemotherapy methods for cancerous tumors whereby toxicity of the antitumor drug to the host is reduced.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for reducing toxicity of antitumor drugs when introduced into the body for chemotherapy.
A particular object of the present invention is to provide a method for reducing the toxicity of actinomycins when introduced into the body for chemotherapy for cancerous tumors.